4. The Mothman Prophecies - The Point Pleasant Visions and Silver Bridge Collapse
The only scary movie my mother would ever watch because of her undying love for Richard Gere, The Mothman Prophecies is a twisted, confusing account of a writer and his personal investigation of a town's haunting by a phenomenon called "The Mothman" after his wife suffers from hallucinations of a winged man in the aftermath of a car accident. His research takes him to a town in West Virginia where he meets several townsfolk who have all seen the same image as his wife. In an attempt to uncover the truth behind the story, Gere's character ends up falling victim to the mysterious Mothman himself. In the epic final scene, we see the town's bridge, its only connection to the outside world, collapsing with hundreds of cars plunging into the icy water below. A very dramatic scene to say the least with an even more worrisome conclusion which is that there was no explanation for what the townspeople were experiencing when they referenced "The Mothman". This is another movie that states it was based on real events that no one really questioned and a majority of audiences didn't look into. Well, good thing I'm here! During the late 60s, in the small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia (less than 5,000 people in 2000), there were reported sightings of a man sized moth looking creature that flew over the heads of townspeople and was the direct cause of strange events occurring in the town. November 16, 1966 was the first sighting of what is now referred to as "The Mothman". The specter has been described as a "man-like flying figure", a "man sized bird", a "white figure with glowing red eyes", all nightmarish pictures that would cause anyone to stay inside after dark. A biologist claimed all of the townspeople were seeing a Sandhill Crane, which is a very large bird with an even larger wingspan and red markings around its eyes. It was easy to believe it had lost its way during migration. It made sense, but the townspeople were not buying it. There were repeated sightings throughout the year and well into 1967, by all sorts of people - firemen, office workers, teachers, children. Not just the crazies, you know? The sightings stopped however. They stopped on December 17, 1967. This was the day that the Silver Bridge collapsed, killing 46 people in the icy water of the Ohio River. Despite reports that the bridge was carrying more weight than it was designed to carry and wasn't well maintained, the townspeople were convinced that "The Mothman" was responsible for the bridge's collapse. It is suspicious though that the cause of the collapse, after investigation, was from a single eyebar in a suspension chain "due to a small defect, .1 inches deep". What a tiny, seemingly insignificant part of a bridge that had originally been built in 1928. That one eyebar happened to give out days after the last "Mothman" sighting and almost 40 years after it was originally built. Coincidence? Nobody knows. There have since been reported sightings of "The Mothman", though no one knows if they're hysterical sightings or what. Point Pleasant now holds an annual Mothman Festival and has erected a statue in the mythical creature's honor. Whether you believe it to be true or not, I guess it never hurts to flatter a demon.